


Bright

by lhknox



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Love, Romance, alex is a gay little shit, everyones a gay little shit, maggie is a gay little shit, seeing color prompt, soulmate prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-28
Packaged: 2018-09-01 22:38:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8640868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lhknox/pseuds/lhknox
Summary: "You always thought your purpose in life was to protect your little sister, but you were wrong. Your purpose in life, it seems, was to kiss Maggie Sawyer. You’re a tangle of lips and gasps and roaming hands, electricity pulsing through the both of you. It’s not that Maggie is a breath of fresh air, no, it’s that up until this moment, you’d never breathed before. She’s the only constellation in your dark night sky. She’s every work of art, every poem, every song ever written. She’s kissing you fiercely, and you kiss her back with an equal ferocity, greedy for the contact and unwilling to pull away."Or, Sanvers version of the classic 'you only see in black and white until you meet your soulmate, and then you see in spectacular color' fic. Sorry not sorry.





	1. I See Colors in a Different Way

**Author's Note:**

> I'm tired and I love Sanvers so gosh darn much so this might have mistakes because it's late so I apologize.
> 
> Enjoy, losers!

At this point, you’ve resigned yourself to the fact that you may never see color. You’ll never find that person who turns the world from black and white to the brightness that only a soulmate can bring. And you’re okay with it, really, because who has time to date when you’re busy fighting bad guys, and looking after the only person in the world who truly matters to you. Besides, you’ve never really been good at dating, nor enjoyed it. Living in grey is fine, you tell yourself, a lot of people go through it. Not everybody finds their match. So you live your life, and you work hard and you don’t think about finding your soulmate anymore, because honestly you’re not sure if they’re out there at all.

 

And then, you get a glimpse of something. You’re not sure what, and you’re not sure why. But you’re at Kara’s apartment after you both save the president’s life and you ask her to throw you an apple, and while it’s in the air… it’s different. Just for a second, a quick flash of something. You fumble and drop the apple, too shocked to react properly.

 

“Did you… did you see that?” you ask Kara, and she snickers as she turns on the television.

 

“You mean that fail of a catch? Yeah I did.” Kara watches T.V. as though nothing’s wrong, and after a few more moments, you follow suit. You probably imagined it, you justify, there’s nothing wrong with the apple. You stare at it before you bite its grey flesh. You don’t know what you were hoping for, but nothing else happens.

 

///

 

You won’t pretend you’re not excited when you get a call from Detective Sawyer inviting you down to a crime scene. You shouldn’t be excited at all; somebody’s dead and you have a crime to solve, but you can’t stop thinking about the brunette detective and you’re ecstatic to get a chance to see her again. 

 

“The other cops won’t go near it,” she says as you arrive, and she leads you to the trunk of a car. The alien inside doesn’t shock you (you’re used to them at the DEO) but you gasp as Supergirl lands beside you. Her cape is different, like the apple was yesterday. But this time it’s not just a flash, and it’s not going away.

 

“You okay, Danvers?” Maggie asks, and you nod your head slowly. You know Kara can see colours, her Kryptonian eyes not bound by the same laws your human ones are. You resolve to ask her later what the color of her cape is, and if there’s any chance it’s the same as apples. You try to focus on the case but you can’t. Kara’s cape billowing in the wind, not black or white or any shade of grey, keeps distracting you. Because it means that you’ve met your soulmate, that you’ve formed a connection. But that doesn’t make any sense because you haven’t met any guys worthwhile in the past few weeks that could possibly be your soulmate. Unless…. Unless it’s somebody you already knew? Unless you bumped into someone at the coffee shop. There was a blonde guy a couple weeks ago who you’ve seen there a few times. Could it be him?

 

“Uh… Alex? You listening?” Kara’s voice breaks you out of your thoughts.

 

“Huh?”

 

“We were saying maybe we should get this down to the lab?” Sawyer holds out what looks like the end of a horn that she’s pulled out of the victim’s shoulder.

 

“Right… We’ll get it analysed right away.”

 

You almost miss the weird look Maggie gives you as you take the evidence bag from her, an almost knowing look in her eye. You wonder if she’s met her soulmate yet, and it takes everything inside you to not ask her about it right there on the spot. 

 

You drive back to the DEO labs in silence, despite the fact that Kara has decided to ride with you, probably because you were acting weird back at the crime scene and she wants to keep an eye on you. You can’t stop thinking about colors and Maggie and as your mind wanders, you can’t quite identify that fluttering feeling in the bottom of your being.

 

“Alex, are you okay?” Kara asks, and you nod tersely in response. You wish you could articulate what you’re feeling to Kara, but finding the right words to begin  _ that  _ conversation seems impossible. You decide to start a different one.

 

“Kara,” you begin carefully, “what color is your cape?”

 

“Red,” she answers automatically.

 

“And why did you choose…  _ red _ .” The word feels awkward and foreign on your tongue. Nobody really ever discussed colors with you when you were younger, and you know it’s because well, your parents may have loved each other, but they weren’t soulmates. Eliza lives her life in black and white and is of absolutely no help to you.

 

“I chose red because it’s strong and bold. It’s the color of love, of passion.”

 

“Of… apples?” you ask, trying to sound casual.

 

“Yeah, some of them, why do you--OOOOH MY GOD.” She slaps your arm so hard your car literally swerves. 

 

“Kara!”

 

“You found your soulmate!!” she all but screams, and you wince at the sound of it being said aloud.

 

“.... Maybe.”

 

“Maybe??  _ Maybe _ ??? How do you not know?” Kara asks incredulously. “You’ve not seen someone who makes your heart stop, whose eyes see right through you and you feel like you’ve known them for your entire life?”

 

Images of dark hair and kind eyes flash through your mind, but they disappear just as quickly.

 

“I don’t know who it could be, Kar. I haven’t met any guys that I can think of.” 

 

“That’s weird,” she says, “maybe it’s someone from work? J’onn, perhaps?”

 

You roll your eyes, “it’s not J’onn.”

 

“Maybe it’s me!”

 

“Kara, ew.”

 

“No, I mean like, why do soulmates have to be  _ romantic _ ?” She says the word like it’s dirty or something, and you can’t help but laugh at your sister.

 

“If it’s you, then why didn’t I start seeing color ten years ago?”

 

“Fair point,” Kara says, sounding almost disappointed. You reach over and squeeze her hand.

 

“You can be my unofficial platonic sister soulmate,” you promise, and then with a sloppy kiss to your cheek, Kara launches into planning your dinner plans for that evening. You think that maybe even if you don’t know who your soulmate is, you’ll always be happy with Kara by your side.

 

///

 

You see red everywhere now, and it’s not going away. If anything, it’s getting stronger. Fire hydrants on the side of the road, stop signs on the way to work, the strawberry you steal from Kara’s dessert plate. You even start seeing it on people’s skin, feint but still there, their cheeks flushed and their lips pink and just… so alive. You know every shade of red there is, every tone or swatch or whatever. You’ve mastered red to the point that you’re starting to think that maybe you just malfunctioned and you never did actually meet ‘the one’. Maybe you only get red.

 

You’re at the bar playing pool with Maggie and you watch as she sinks the very red number three ball and gives the dorkiest little fist bump in celebration. You watch as she takes a swig of beer and spills a bit of it on her light red shirt. You watch the way she lines up the cue to sink another ball, and you’re drawn to the sway of her hips, the lock of hair that she tucks behind her ear, the way her tongue pokes out slightly as she concentrates on playing the game.

 

You laugh softly when she misses her mark altogether, and when your hands brush against hers as she hands you the pool cue, your throat goes dry and that feeling returns to the bottom of your stomach. 

 

“Sawyer…” you trail off, unsure of how to ask her what you want to ask her.

 

“Danvers…” she replies with a chuckle.

 

“Maggie… have you ever seen color before?”

 

She regards you for a few seconds, like maybe you have a hidden agenda, like maybe she wants to speak but she’s not sure how to. 

 

“I… I can’t say that I have, Alex.” You don’t know what you expected to feel, but it sure as hell wasn’t disappointment. It washes over you like cold water, leaving a stinging feeling in its wake. Maggie tilts her head slightly, the way she does when she’s about to read your mind, the way that makes your heart feel fuzzy. “Have you seen color?” she prompts.

 

“Only one, only red,” you tell her with a sigh.

 

“Ah, the color of passion, or, uh, so I hear.”

 

“But that’s the thing… there’s no passion. There’s no one new in my life that it could be, at least nobody I can think of.”

 

Maggie reaches over, and puts her hand on top of yours. You ignore the way it feels like your skin is on fire, desperate for her touch no matter what.

 

“You’ll find your person,” she tells you, more earnest than you’ve ever seen her. “I promise.”

 

And you can’t help but believe her.

 

///

 

You and Maggie get assigned a case by J’onn - two alien children have been kidnapped - and you think you might explode. You’re used to having a bit of space whenever you work a case with the detective, but now she’s at the DEO and  _ sitting next you _ at your desk, and leaning over you to reach things and all you can smell is her perfume and all you can think is  _ dimples oh god she has dimples _ . You turn into a nervous wreck, a bumbling fool and more than that, you’re freaking terrified of thinking about  _ why  _ you’re so anxious around her. Kara watches you with a permanently quirked eyebrow, her little puppy brain working just as hard as yours trying to figure out your interactions. You start working extra hard, extra long, to get the case finished and Maggie back to the NCPD. If the detective thinks you’re acting strangely, she doesn’t say anything about it to you and you’re thankful for that saving grace.

 

The case goes fucking horribly. A fresh lead gets you to a warehouse across town, and you and Sawyer arrive before the backup. Immediately you’re under fire from the assailants, and you spot their hostages in the middle of the room, two small figures tied to chairs, shaking in fear. You dart behind one a shipping container, peaking out again just in time to see an eight year old boy get shot in the head.

 

His blood is even redder than Kara’s cape.

 

You’re scared to fire at the enemy, in case you hit the other child, screaming in their seat, splattered with the blood of their sibling. You watch as one of the men puts their finger to their ear, receiving orders, and then you watch as the four men run off, leaving through a back entrance of the warehouse.

 

You and Maggie sprint over to the kids, assuring the living one - a little girl, no older than six - that you’re with the government, that she’s safe now. Maggie unties the ropes that hold her and you stop her from launching herself onto her brother’s body. Instead, she sobs into your arms, and you rub her back and whisper into her ear and you try to ease the pain that you know courses through her tiny body.

 

“It’ll be okay,” you tell her, but you know your words are false. You make eye contact with Maggie, over the body of an innocent boy and a child in mourning, and you know that nothing’s really okay.

 

///

 

You don’t know how the hell you got yourself in this situation.

 

You sit on your couch nursing a beer, your eyes following the detective on the other side of the room. Maggie stands at your record player (Kara got it as a Christmas present but you know it was more for her than it was for you) fiddling with an LP. She struggles for a few moments before you hear what she chooses. You smile despite the shitty day you’ve had.

 

“Carole King? Really?” Maggie puts a hand to her chest, as if she’s outraged you’d even question it.

 

“She’s a legend, Alex. What more do you want from me?”

 

You don’t know where you find the courage to stand up and edge towards Maggie. Her question hangs in the air as you take her by the hand and pull her body close to yours. Your hands settle on her hips, and hers snake around your neck, settling comfortably, setting your skin alight. You sway back and forth, so many words going unsaid, the emotions you’d shoved down bubbling quickly to the surface.

 

It’s as though everything melts away - the room, the music, absolutely everything. All that remains is Maggie and the way she looks at you, as though she were seeing you for the first time. You lean down a fraction, not wanting to move too fast. Time slows down and comes to a halt, and it takes forever for Maggie to meet you halfway, kissing you spectacularly.

 

You always thought your purpose in life was to protect your little sister, but you were wrong. Your purpose in life, it seems, was to kiss Maggie Sawyer. You’re a tangle of lips and gasps and roaming hands, electricity pulsing through the both of you. It’s not that Maggie is a breath of fresh air, no, it’s that up until this moment, you’d never breathed before. She’s the only constellation in your dark night sky. She’s every work of art, every poem, every song ever written. She’s kissing you fiercely, and you kiss her back with an equal ferocity, greedy for the contact and unwilling to pull away. But eventually, you come up for breath.

 

“I didn’t know you were gay,” she murmurs, half-laughing.

 

“Neither did I,” you reply honestly, before leaning down to kiss her again. She pulls away from you.

 

“Oh.” She sits down. You feel your heart sink. You sit down next to her. And for the first time, you notice-- with a healthy dose of disappointment-- that your world is grayer than ever. You blink back irrational tears, so angry with yourself, so angry at the world. For a second there, you thought you had found it, it  _ felt  _ like you had found it. “Alex?”

 

“I haven’t dated in two years. I always say it’s because I don’t have the time but that’s a lie. I have the time. Time I spend with Kara, or watching some cheesy movie on TV by myself. The truth is, I didn’t want to date. It never… it never felt right to me. And then I saw you a few weeks back, with your girlfriend. And I thought… I thought that it seemed nice, that maybe if I found what you had that I could be happy.

 

“And then I started seeing color. Red, I started seeing red. And I couldn’t figure out who I had met that could be my soulmate, until I realised that the new, important person in my life is you, Maggie. Only you haven’t seen color yet. And I’ve seen nothing but red, and I think even that’s starting to fade. But that doesn’t matter. We don’t need to be soulmates because this…” you gesture to the two of you. “This feels right.”

 

Maggie sighs shakily, running a hand through her hair, biting her lip nervously.

 

“Alex… relationships like this rarely work. You’re brand new. Everything is bright and shiny and exciting. You’ve only just discovered who you are; your family doesn’t even know you like girls.”

 

“So what are you saying, Maggie?”

 

“I’m saying, I’m saying I think it’d be best if we were just friends. We’re in such different places right now, it would never end well.”

 

You shoot up from the couch, and make your way to the door, holding it open for Sawyer to leave.

 

“It’s getting late,” you tell her, “you should go.”

 

“Alex…”

 

“Goodnight, Maggie.”

 

You barely notice the door slams shut behind you with Maggie on the other side. You barely notice when the record player scratches to a messy stop. You barely notice when Kara climbs into bed beside you, grumbling about the long night she’d had. But you do notice the overwhelming greyness before you fall asleep, the numbing black and white you’ll be stuck with forever.

 

You dream of red pools of blood and small crying children, and a dimpled smile that brings nothing but heartache in its wake.

 

///

 

You wake up as the alarm sounds, and you rush to turn it off so it doesn’t disturb Kara. Bleary eyed and yawning, you make your way into the kitchen to make yourself breakfast. You pull milk and eggs and orange juice from the fridge, setting them down on the counter with too much force. You crack some eggs into a bowl. In your sleepy state, you knock the fruit bowl and it goes flying.

 

You bend down to pick the apples and frown. Some are red, but some are… different. You look at the bowl. It’s got reddish tones, but it’s different altogether. You stand up slowly, and look around your apartment. Your colorful, bright apartment. The orange juice is, well, orange. The egg yolks are a similar color, just a bit lighter. You stare around in amazement, taking in as much as you can.

 

You can see color. Bright, vivid, loud color.

 

You laugh like a crazy person.

 

“Kara!” you call out, “Kara, quick! I can see--” It hits you out of nowhere. You can see color.  _ After last night.  _ After you kissed Maggie with more passion than you’ve ever kissed before.

 

Maggie is your soulmate.

 

Maggie.

 

Who apparently lied about not seeing color.

 

“Oh, I’m gonna  _ kill _ her.”


	2. The Universe Is On My Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "The thought of being friends with Maggie-- when you know that her soul is tied to yours, when you feel as strongly as you do-- the thought of being just friends threatens to tear you apart from the inside. But she looks at you with a desperation you’ve never seen on her before, her eyes so close to tears that you want to cry yourself. And you feel yourself nodding your head despite the fact your heart is screaming at you to stop, and feel your whole body tremor with the aching need to hold Maggie in your arms."
> 
> Or,
> 
> Conclusion to the Sanvers version of the classic 'you only see in black and white until you meet your soulmate, and then you see in spectacular color' fic. Sorry not sorry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man oh man I was so overwhelmed by the response the first chapter got! I hope you all enjoy the second chapter!
> 
> Happy reading, nerds.

Holy shit, you’re really fucking angry.

 

You pace outside of Maggie’s apartment building, the sky bluer than you ever could have imagined, people fluttering about on their way to work. You ring the doorbell over and over, the buzzing becoming like white noise to you. You dig your phone out of your jacket pocket and ring her cell number. It goes straight to voicemail.

 

Goddamn, are you angry.

 

She lied to you. She said she’s never seen color, but it turns out  _ she’s your soulmate _ . And then you kissed her and she spouted something about how she didn’t think it would work out, but clearly she was making excuses because of course it would all work out because  _ she’s your fucking soulmate _ . Unless… unless it was some anomaly. Unless maybe you’re platonic soulmates like Kara had suggested. Only, the way you think about Maggie was anything but platonic. When you think about her, you think of the way her lips felt against yours, the way her hands roamed your body, how touching her was like pure energy surging through your being.

 

You really, really had to talk to Maggie.

 

Your phone rings, and you answer without even looking at the screen.

 

“Maggie, we need to talk about this soulmate thing.” 

 

“ _ MAGGIE’S _ YOUR SOULMATE?!” Kara screeches on the other end of the line, her voice so high and shrill you have to hold the phone away from your ear. Shit. You didn’t mean to tell her like that. You didn’t mean to tell her at all, yet. How do you explain the situation to your sister? You’re not even out to her; you’re barely out to yourself. “You better be on your way home right now to talk about this.” she tells you.

 

“I’ll be home in ten,” you promise. You glance up at Maggie’s building once more, hoping that maybe you can coax her out by just thinking about it. But she doesn’t surface. And maybe it’s not the best idea to speak to her when you’re so angry about it all.

 

_ Yeah, that’s a good idea _ , you think,  _ I’ll speak to her when I calm down a bit. _

 

///

 

“So let me get this straight….” Kara says for the tenth time, and you bury your head in your hands. Your sister sits across from you, your brunch getting colder the longer you talk. You’ve been going over everything with her. How you think you’re gay. Maggie. The kiss. The fact that you had never realised your carpet was  _ orange _ and goddamn it was awful.

 

“The only thing you need to get straight is that I’m not.” 

 

“Oh, ha ha. Very funny. This is just… it’s a lot to take in.” Your heart sinks just a bit, because even though you know Kara will love you no matter what, it feels like she’s not totally on board with this whole ‘surprise I’m a lesbian’ thing.

 

“I need to know that you’re okay with this. With me… with me liking women. Because I can’t do this - I can’t do anything - without you by my side.”

 

In the literal blink of an eye, Kara is next to you, her hands resting on your shoulders, making sure you maintain eye contact with her.

 

“Alex, the one thing you don’t have to worry about right now is me not being okay with this. I’ll love you no matter who you love, forever.” She envelops you in a tight hug and you give a watery laugh, happy that at least something’s going right.

 

“I don’t know what I’m gonna do, Kara. This whole thing is such a mess.”

 

“You’ll figure it out, you always do.”

 

“But this… this is all new and I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”

 

“Start by  _ talking _ to her, Alex. Communication is key in healthy relations.” She says it with such conviction you can’t help but laugh. Your sister is a dork but she’s your dork and you love her more than anything.

 

“Thanks for the advice, Dr. Phil.”

 

Your phone sounds and Kara looks at you expectantly as you check the screen. You think she’s more disappointed than you are when you both see that it’s J’onn calling and not Maggie.

 

“Duty calls,” you sigh, and you give Kara one last big hug before you get up to leave for work.

 

“I’m really proud of you, Alex,” she says and you just hold her even tighter.

 

For a second, you forget all about Maggie and just revel in your sister’s embrace.

 

///

 

You may be calm by the time you get to work, but then you see Maggie Sawyer. You knew she’d be at the DEO finishing up the case you had shared, but she still takes you by surprise, with her soft brown hair, and dimpled cheeks. The two of you make eye contact, and her cheeks flush red and then she takes off in the opposite direction.

 

And then you’re mad again. You take off after her, and despite the distance she’s put between you, you manage to catch up with ease. You pull her by the arm into an empty room before she can get away again.

 

“What is it Danvers,” she says as if you’re inconveniencing her, as if she’s not the one who  _ lied to your face _ . “I have work to do.” She can’t even look you in the eye. You push her up against the closed door, your faces dangerously close to one another. She doesn’t even try to stop you.

 

“Maggie,” you say, your voice laced with anger, “when I asked you if you had seen color before, did you lie to me?”

 

“... Yeah.”

 

“Because, because you knew that  _ I  _ was your soulmate?”

 

“That is correct.”

 

“What. The hell.”

 

“Alex, I--”

 

“No, don’t even try. You knew how hard all this was - is - for me. You knew I was panicking, that I didn’t know why I was seeing color and that I had all these confusing feelings.”

 

She doesn’t respond.

 

“So, so you just  _ lie  _ to me? And what? Ignore the fact that the universe wants us together? Just go on with living our lives? I can’t believe you.”

 

You give her a chance to respond, but she stands in stony silence, staring at her feet.

 

“Why? Why did you lie to me?” You can’t get any sort of read on her, her poker face to good. You try and will her to answer you with your mind, but she just stands there, her face so close to yours you can almost feel the taste of her on your lips. 

 

You pull away, because she’s not answering. She’s not answering and you feel like a damn fool because all you can really do is look at how brown Maggie’s eyes are. You sigh shakily, and open the door.

 

“Goodbye, Sawyers,” you say, and you walk away, refusing to look back at her as you go.

 

///

 

Kara brings you a burger from that food truck you love and way too much Chinese food and she insists that you spend the night watching movies from Netflix’s LGBT subgenre because ‘ _ we’ve spent ten years watching hetero romantic comedies, the least we can do is watch Imagine Me and You _ ’.

 

You tell Kara to spend the night because you finish up late and you know she’s too tired to fly home. She gives you a kiss on the cheek as she heads into the bathroom to get ready for bed, and you clear up the empty beer bottles and food containers on the coffee table.

 

You don’t expect a knock at your door, and you sure as hell don’t expect Maggie Sawyer to be standing there when you open it. She barges into your living room, and stares at you, her eyes shining, tapping her foot as she gathers the courage to speak.

 

“I’m scared, too, Alex,” she finally says, “I’m fucking terrified of all of this.” You’re shocked at her admission because she’s Maggie Sawyer, badass and confident, and so so strong. “You, you’re brand new. You’ve never dated a girl, slept with one, lived with one. And I, I have a horrible track record with girlfriends. I’m a shitty girlfriend.”

 

“What was it, obsessed with work and borderline sociopathic?” you quote with a small smile.

 

“Exactly,” she laughs humorlessly, “I’m not what you should be getting mixed up with, especially this early on in your-” she gestures vaguely at you- “gaydom.” You laugh softly despite the seriousness of the conversation.

 

“Did you love her, your ex?”

 

“Very much so,” she smiles fondly, and you imagine a time when maybe Maggie smiles like that when she talks about you. The thought alone makes your stomach flutter.

 

“Being soulmates doesn’t guarantee us being together forever,” she says, “I know plenty of people who met theirs and couldn’t make it work because the timing just wasn’t right. You’re new, and I’m fresh out of a serious relationship. If we’re going to give this a shot… we need to take it slow. I can’t be your first and you can’t be my rebound. Maybe... maybe we can just be friends for a while?” 

 

The thought of being friends with Maggie-- when you know that her soul is tied to yours, when you feel as strongly as you do-- the thought of being just friends with Maggie threatens to tear you apart from the inside. But she looks at you with a desperation you’ve never seen on her before, her eyes so close to tears that you want to cry yourself. And you feel yourself nodding your head despite the fact your heart is screaming at you to stop, and feel your whole body tremor with the aching need to hold Maggie in your arms.

 

“Friends,” you agree with a smile that doesn’t quite reach your eyes. Maggie smiles back, her dimples flaring.

 

You hear the bathroom door open, and swear under your breath. You had forgotten Kara was home and your cheeks burn with embarrassment because you just know she listened to that whole conversation. Your sister exits the bathroom in a pair of booty shorts and a tank top, her glasses on the tip of her nose. You roll your eyes because she’s showing off her legs and biceps on purpose.

 

“Hello,” Kara says with a small smile, stupidly formal and you know it’s an attempt to intimidate Maggie. You don’t realise until you look at the cop that it seems to be working; Maggie looks terrified.

 

“Hi,” Maggie says with a small frown, before turning to you. “I didn’t realise you knew Supergirl so… intimately.” Kara’s eyes widen comically, and she tries to do some damage control.

 

“I’m, uh, not, I’m not Supergirl!” she stutters. Maggie raises an eyebrow, and all you can do is laugh because Maggie is too good at being a detective and your sister’s an idiot.

 

“Maggie, this is my sister, Kara Danvers. She also happens to save the city in a silly red cape.” Kara gasps, scandalised.

 

“My cape is not silly!” she exclaims, hand dramatically pressed against her chest. “It makes me faster.” You look at Maggie and she doesn’t seem all that shocked at the revelation, just rather pleased.

 

“I’ll get out of your hair,” she says. “It was nice meeting you, Kara.”

 

“See you soon?” you ask.

 

“I’ll call you later,” she promises, and then she’s gone and you ignore the barrage of questions coming from Kara. You just try to focus on the faint smell of Maggie Sawyer that still lingers in the apartment.

 

///

 

“Come on, Alex it’ll be fun!” Kara exclaims, tugging on your arm.

 

“No.”

 

“But you should get out there! Meet new people! Date more!”

 

“I’m not going to a gay bar with you, Kara.”

“I’ll be the best wingwoman ever! I can already fly!” She laughs so hard at her own joke she snorts several times. You resist the urge to punch her.

 

It had been a couple of months since Maggie had turned up at your apartment and you had decided on friendship rather than anything else. And you’re really good at friendship with the detective. You go to movies together, you play pool, you fight crime side by side. You’ve been on a few dates with different women, but nothing’s really felt right. 

 

_ Because none of them were Maggie. _

 

“Alex, you’re hot! You could get so many chicks! You’ll be drowning in pussy!” 

 

You choke on the tea you were drinking and Kara goes a bright shade of red.

 

“Did you just--”

 

“I regretted saying it as soon as it left my mouth,” she mumbles, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. You know Kara still feels guilty about your childhood and the fact you hadn’t figured out your sexuality sooner. So you relent and decide to go along with her plan.

 

“Fine, we can go to a gay bar.”

 

“I’m gonna be the best wingwoman ever!”

 

///

 

All in all, it’s a pretty good night. Good enough that you find yourself in the bathroom of the bar with some blonde haired beauty pressed against the sink, kissing her with a force you can’t control. Her hands are rough as they roam your body, and your lips don’t feel right against hers. But you push forward, nipping at her neck, causing her to gasp, trying to get brown eyes and perfect hair and dimples out of your mind. You let the blonde whose name you can’t recall keep kissing you, keep touching you, no matter how wrong it feels.

 

Your head snaps up as the bathroom door opens with a bang, and your heart drops when you see Maggie standing there, looking at you like you’ve broken her heart. You hear her mumble sorry as she turns and leaves, and you pry the blonde off you as you chase after her. She rushes through the bar and out the front door, and you follow her, ignoring Kara calling you from a booth nearby.

 

“Maggie, wait!” you call out as she walks away. The cold night air is cold against your skin, leaving your cheeks freezing and your breath visible.

 

“Leave me alone, Danvers,” she replies. You run to catch up with her, and she whirls around when you reach her. She pins you against a storefront, her eyes searching your face, her lips just inches away from yours. You so desperately want to kiss her, but you know you can’t; she needs her space and you promised to give it to her. 

 

“Seeing you with… with that  _ woman _ ,” she seethes, “made me feel sick.” You can feel her breath on your face, laced with whiskey. You push her away.

 

“That’s not fair.”

 

“Oh yeah? Well I don’t think it’s fair that I have to watch my soulmate hooking up with some bitch.”

 

“You’re the one who wanted this! You’re the one who wanted to just be friends and to date other people!”

 

“I didn’t think you’d go ahead and be a, a whore who hooks up with anybody in bar bathrooms.”

 

“Fuck you, Maggie,” you practically spit at her. You begin to walk away, before turning around one last time. “I’m sick of this shit. I won’t wait for you forever, so figure out what you want or I’m done.” 

 

You head back to the bar, and you almost swear that the color of the world seems a little duller.

 

///

 

The next time you see Maggie is at work; you get a lead on the case you worked together a few months back, when Cadmus had kidnapped two alien children and killed one of them in front of you. It’s been a bit more than a week since your last run in, and you make sure that Supergirl works the case with you as well, so you have a bit of a buffer. Maggie stays professional albeit more quiet than usual, and Kara barely speaks to her, preferring to glare in Maggie’s direction every so often. 

 

You gear up with a team to storm a warehouse where your informant tells you Cadmus is using. Kara helps you strap on your bulletproof vest and hands you a gun.

 

“Be safe,” she warns you.

 

“Back atcha,” you reply, giving her hand a small squeeze. You look to Maggie, and she gives you a small nod. You regard her for a few moments, and don’t reply. Even the thought of talking to her in this moment hurts too much. 

 

On your count, the team barges into the warehouse, and you realise just a moment too late that it’s a set-up. You’re ambushed by at least two dozen men with guns, and you all run for cover. Kara flies up overhead, but you lose sight of Maggie. You fire your weapon at the assailants, and you manage to hit a couple of them. Kara does most of the heavy lifting, taking out man after man. You still can’t see Maggie.

 

As a bit of the shooting tapers off, you stand to yell out instructions to a few of your men.

 

You barely hear Kara scream your name.

 

And then everything goes black.

 

///

 

The steady beating of a heart monitor is the first thing you register. You open your eyes, and immediately regret it; your surroundings are too bright, and your head spins. You make out a figure by your bedside, and you recognise the bright blue and red of her outfit.

 

“Kara,” you croak, and you manage a small smile (probably more a grimace) as her head snaps up and relief floods her face.

 

“Oh thank god, Alex.” Your eyes start to adjust and you open them a bit more, taking in the room. You know it’s one of the recovery rooms at the DEO, with its state of the art equipment and plain walls. A small movement in the corner of the room catches your eye, and you see a small body curled up on a chair, fast asleep. Kara follows your line of sight and sighs affectionately.

 

“You’ve been out for about three days,” Kara says, sensing what your next question was going to be. “She hasn’t left your side once.” You think you hear acceptance in her voice. You assume her and Maggie have come to some sort of agreement. The thought is quite terrifying. Your sister leans down and presses a light kiss to your forehead. “You scared me,” she whispers, and you feel her tears as they fall onto your skin.

 

“I’m sorry,” you reply, “but I’m okay, I promise.” Maggie stirs on the chair, and Kara walks over and gently shakes her awake. It takes the detective a few moments before she realises you’re awake, and you smile gratefully at your sister as she leaves the room and Maggie approaches your bed.

 

“You got a through-and-through bullet wound in your arm that they fixed up easily, a twisted ankle that should be fine in a few days.”

 

“Maggie.”

 

“The real worry was the steel pole that you were hit over the head with-”

 

“Maggie.”

 

“-There was a cranial bleed but the doctors operated and fixed you all up, and you’ll be able to get back at work in a couple of weeks.”

 

“Maggie!” you almost yell, wincing at the way your head pounds when you speak too loudly. But it works, because Maggie has stopped rambling and instead bites her lip as she stares down at you.

 

“I thought I had lost you,” she whispers.

 

“I’m right here,” you tell her.

 

“There was one point… while you were in surgery… the world turned grey again. For seventeen seconds.” Her tears fall freely now, and you feel your own eyes welling up. “You were gone for seventeen whole seconds, and I didn’t know what I would’ve done if I had lost you before…”

 

“Before?” She takes a deep breath.

 

“Before I got to tell you that I’m sorry for the things I said. Before I admitted that waiting was stupid and that we belong together. Before I could tell you that I’m falling madly in love with you.”

 

Slowly, you raise your hand and grab a fistful of Maggie’s crumpled shirt. You pull her down towards you, stopping only when her lips meet yours. She tastes like salt water and her lips are chapped but it’s the sweetest kiss you’ve ever had. It’s so unlike your first, which was a tangle of limbs and urgency. This kiss is soft and time slows down and you wish the moment could last forever. The feeling of Maggie touching you makes you feel like you’re home, like this is what you were built for and this is what you needed to spend your lifetime doing. 

 

You shift slightly on the bed so she can climb in next to you, and hold you in her arms. You rest your head against her chest and you listen as her heart beats in time with your own, slow, steady and strong. You lie there with her and you heart feels so full and you lift your head so you can look into her bright, happy eyes.

 

“I’m falling in love with you, too,” you tell her, and she leans down to kiss you again.

 

You know the world is a scary place, that Kara’s life is in almost constant jeopardy and that your line of work can get you killed. You know that the city is filled with bad people and danger and fights that end in bright red blood pooling in the streets. 

 

But red is also the color of fire hydrants and Kara’s cape and apples and love. And the city is also filled with good people and your friends and a constant fight for justice and peace. And as you lie in your hospital bed, you know you have a colorful lifetime ahead of you filled with nothing but the love you never thought you’d get to experience. And you know you’ll live it out happily, with Maggie by your side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to all of you who read and enjoyed this little fic. Come find me and chat on tumblr at murdershegoat dot tumblr dot com and also my writing instagram is californiarollerderby if you wanna check that out.
> 
> Catch you on the flip side, kids.

**Author's Note:**

> AS ALWAYS hit me up on tumblr -- murdershegoat -- and also I write on instagram sometimes under californiarollerderby. See you there x


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